Domino Days

I want you to imagine something for me. Imagine your perfect morning. Not like, waking up in a fancy hotel on your way to Universal Studio kind of morning. A get the kids to school and adults to work and things went really well morning.

Have you thought of yours? Good, here’s my perfect morning.

I wake up when my alarm goes off and spend fifteen minutes playing with my time management games. Then I get up, and dress in the outfit I picked out the night before. I can walk right into the bathroom and do my makeup, because my makeup bag is in the bathroom where it belongs. Then I go downstairs and turn on my coffee pot that’s already loaded with coffee. The house isn’t immaculate, but it’s picked up. My lunch is in my bag, I know where my keys are. I remember to take my vitamins because I’ve remembered to put them right next to my travel mug, which is clean and ready to go.

All of these things set me up for a good day. I feel more energized, I get to the day job with time to spare and I feel more confident. Since I feel so good, I’m more likely to do things that I need to. I’ll get things done, I’ll do laundry. Most importantly, I’ll do the things that I need to do to make the next morning another good one.

This is the domino effect that a good day can have, if we follow through with it.

Now, picture a shitty morning. You know the mornings I mean, we all have them.

I just can’t wake up, so I don’t have time to play my games. I have to scrounge through the bin full of clothes I didn’t have the energy to put away and maybe find some wrinkled shirt. At worse, I might be stuck with some less than fresh underthings. I’ve got to take time to make my coffee and scrounge something for lunch. If I have the time left after all that, I’ll toss on some BB cream and mascara. I’ll rush to the day job, arrive just in time to clock in and hit the ground running. I hate that. Oh, and of course I’ve forgotten to take my vitamins, if I even knew where they were. By the end of the day, while I know it will only lead to another bad morning, I’m more inclined to crash on the couch and watch cartoons than I am to do the things I need to do. I’m also frustrated because, when I make my to do list for tomorrow, I’m just rewriting the exact same list again. I’ve made little to no progress, and that makes me feel like crap.

This is the domino effect that a bad day can have, if we let it.